Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps his Department is taking to reduce inequalities in access to dental services.
We are aware that some patients find it difficult to access NHS dentistry. Work is underway to better target patients with complex needs. NHS England has provided a flexible commissioning toolkit to commissioners to focus available capacity on reducing oral health inequalities.
In addition, we provided an extra £50 million earlier this year for additional dental access. The appointments were targeted to vulnerable patients and those in most urgent need.